This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
With the development of wireless communication technologies, networks of different architectures exist at the same time, for example, Wireless LAN (WLAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). To ensure the service continuity when a User Equipment (UE) hands over or roams between heterogeneous networks, the UE usually supports multiple types of wireless interfaces. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of assisting and optimizing the handover service between heterogeneous networks. In FIG. 1, the MIH protocol, for example, Mobile IP (MIP), Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) is located between layer 2 (L2) and layer 3 (L3), and provides the link layer information and other relevant network information to the upper layer for optimizing handover. In this way, the mobile node (UE) can select the best connection network type and the best access point automatically during roaming between networks, and implement seamless handover.
The internal architecture of the MIH service is shown in FIG. 2, and can be split into two layers. The upper layer is an MIH service layer, which provides three types of services: MIH Event Service (MIH ES), MIH Command Service (MIH CS) and MIH Information Service (MIH IS). The MIH ES provides instant transmission for the events below the link layer or below the remote link layer; the MIH CS provides transmission for the commands of changing the underlying layer link state or connection point; and the MIH IS provides transmission for the information related to network topologies and location. The lower layer is a common transport layer of the MIH service, and provides the transmission function for the upper layer. It is set up on the IP layer, now there is no implementation mode of the HIH layer. Instead, the MIH service is discovered.
The MIH service can be used between a mobile node and a network infrastructure, or between different network infrastructures. The network infrastructure may be an MIH server. Before use of the MIH service, it is necessary to get the MIH service-related information (for example, MIH ES, MIH CS, and MIH IS). In the prior art, the MIH service-related information is statically configured inside the mobile node, and may be the MIH service information of the home network of the user or the MIH service information of a third-party network.
Based on research and practices, the disadvantages of the prior art lie in:
the MIH service-related information is statically configured inside the mobile node, and can't be changed randomly. When a mobile node roams to a visited network, the configured MIH service-related information (including MIH ES, MIH CS, and MIH IS) will be provided to the upper layer by the mobile node. The configured MIH service-related information may be different from the MIH service information of the network visited by the mobile node, and the configured MIH service-related information is unchangeable and little extensible. Therefore, it is difficult to implement seamless handover of a mobile node between networks of the same or different types; and
the MIH service-related information is statically configured inside a mobile node. With the development of the wireless communication technology and the increase of mobile nodes, it is a heavy workload to configure MIH service-related information for every mobile node.